Watch Bill O'Reilly Do Something He Rarely Does: Admit He Was Wrong About Something And Apologize

Anyone who’s watched Bill Reilly knows that’s he’s, well, a little stubborn. In fairness, he’s probably not as stubborn as his reputation makes him out to be, but he’s still pretty stubborn. So what provoked him to do what he did last night (not wanting to give Jon Stewart a lay-up upon his return next week?) is beyond me, but it, like a passing of Halley’s comet, is an extremely rare occurrence, so we should all take the time to appreciate it.

Some background: a few days ago O’Reilly had James Carville on to talk about the 50th anniversary celebration of the March on Washington. In the segment, O’Reilly wondered why former president George W. Bush wasn’t there. Carville responded by saying, “I do not know that he wasn’t invited.” O’Reilly then shot back, “He wasn’t. No Republicans and no conservatives were invited.”

Fast forward to last night…

Last night during my discussion with James Carville about the Martin Luther King commemoration I said there were no Republican speakers invited. Wrong. Was wrong. Some Republicans were asked to speak. They declined. And that was a mistake. They should have spoken.

Now, the mistake, is entirely on me. I simply assumed that since all the speakers were liberal Democrats, Republicans were excluded. So, here’s the ‘Tip of the Day’ — always check out the facts before you make a definitive statement. And, when you make a mistake, admit it.

That sound you hear is the sound of hell freezing over and pigs flying…

Okay, trying not to start a POFLWA, but I find it mind-blowing that the republican party couldn’t wrestle up one speaker to commemorate “I Have a Dream” or that anyone invited would TURN DOWN that request.

One obvious reason? Some contingent of the far left would turn it into a protest or some other kind of distraction instead of allowing the moment to be what it should be. Which happens ALL THE TIME when conservatives speak at public events.

“Where’s my invite to the March on Washington ceremony? I can’t wait!”

“I threw it out, Congressman. If you go, the Tea Party will run a primary candidate against you. They’re already mad that you won’t vote to impeach Obama, and saying nice things about that commie MLK won’t help.”

SMH. You guys have a huge blind spot to the way the worst folks on your side. I’m not indicting President Obama or Hillary Clinton if I acknowledge that some Code Pink or other fringe ass would immediately see a conservative speaking at a March ceremony as an opportunity to make it all about them and their stupid single-issue cause.

That doesn’t invalidate the criticism that it’s weak to not stand up to that and speak anyway. I merely answered the question as to why a conservative might not do it.

Would you want John McCain to speak at Jimmy Carter’s funeral some day if it meant some asshole activists would stand up and try to shout him down? Because people like Otto will be the first in line to say, “Yeah man, speak truth to power” when those activists act like inhuman monsters.

I’m not sure what I’ve ever done here that would lead you to believe I would support screaming at John McCain while he’s giving a eulogy, because that is way off the fucking charts as far as I’m concerned. (You know who I voted for in the 2000 primaries, by the way? John McCain. Those were the days.)

For the record, I have lambasted Code Pink multiple times on the Uproxx sites, as well as other fringe forces on the left — PETA, Earth First, and hippies who think giant paper mache puppets are the key to stopping ill-considered wars.

Republicans were cowards here, plain and simple. They didn’t want to be seen sharing a stage with President Socialist McFasciststein and have the teatards pissed off at them, so they all just ran away. Period.

The far right is to blame for the right’s cowardice. Don’t pin their pants pissing on the left or the far left.

Yeah, and I voted for Obama — in the general, not in a primary. Both parties suck, as far as I am concerned, but the worst are “activists” that think feeling something strongly gives them the right to act like jerks in public.

Some jackass screaming about Trayvon Martin and a Florida state law to a Republican senator from South Carolina would be equal parts incoherent and disrespectful to MLK and the ceremony at hand, but it would probably happen — even though Scott is African-American. Hard lefties especially lose themselves in rage over African-American conservatives; you know it’s true.

It’s a blind spot if you are a consistent lefty voter and you don’t realize that this is a frequent problem with your side’s nutjobs, that’s all I am saying. But I agree that it was also cowardice at play if any GOP folks turned down an invite. However, what I’ve read is that Scott was NOT invited. Rather, the organizers said they asked [unnamed GOP operative] to supply someone, and they did not.

You nailed it buddy, the majority of people to the right of the political spectrum hate blacks, gays, and some jews and the idea that perhaps its just the very vocal minority who feel that way is just unfathomable

Well since the vocal minority is what the rest of the country thinks of the right side, perhaps accepting an invite to honor a civil rights leader might have been the intelligent thing to do rather than be political (and I mean this in the nicest way) poopypantsheads.

So you make 250K+ toomanypizza? Because there is no party currently in the US that wants to raise income taxes on anyone making 250+ and below, let alone “half their income”.

And yeah at this point if you vote republican you are approving a party that backs racist, anti gay, and down right almost treasonous (taking the full faith and credit of the US economy hostage is treasonous) behavior.

What has the Obama admin done that’s treasonous or on par with talking a debt default because not enough poor people are suffering in america? Let me guess libya? Benghazi? F&F or the bullshit IRS scandal? Pull the other one.

Not only is it an exageration, I bet your taxes have gone down under the Obama admin, again unless you are incredibly well off. Which means not only were you exagerating you were lying. So a typical republican.

Well I’d say that conservative politics isn’t necessarily nor does it mean that you hate black people. However, the fact that you’re okay with demagoguing a black president using the most obviously subtle racist rhetoric or using the rising Latino population to advance said politics, yeah I’d say that’s a little racist.

Considering the fact that Hilary Clinton either beats or is within five points all possible Republicans in just about every state but Alabama, and Obama did not garner that support in the South…I’m guessing it’s something to do with race that riles up the Obama haters.

Bear in mind, racism = / = hatred. You can have ignorant views of people of other races yet still fall short of hating them. If you see a Mexican person and think “I bet that guy has a sombrero” or “that guy probably makes wicked tacos,” while these thoughts are racist, they fall well short of hateful.

As far as treason goes…dude, every administration has been called treasonous for some legitimate reason or another. You’re high if you think that there exists someone that if president won’t do something that pisses you the fuck off. Shit happens. The fact that every president since Eisenhower (sans Carter, I guess) has gotten involved with a shitty part of the world or somehow fed the Military Industrial Complex should tell you something.

TooManyPizza, as someone who lives in a pretty conservative area of the country, and as someone who LOOKS like the rest of the conservatives in this area, people tend to assume I am also like minded.

It is not just the “vocal minority” that I base my generalization on….it is the typical conservative I interact with who let their guard down around me because they assume that since I’m a white male, it’s ok for them to use the n-word around me.

Here’s my problem/issue/whatever you call it and the general reason I vote on the right despite the fact that yes I believe that: gays should be allowed to marry, my disdain for others has nothing to do with skin color and I don’t really like country music.

Take the income argument made above, I own a business and I report an “income” that is above 250k, which obviously means I inherited a bunch of my that I put in to assorted funds and stocks that allow me to make money hand over foot for no good reason….or it could also be that much of that “income” I report is reinvested in the business which allows me to continue to hire people, continue paying for the excessive healthcare program I provide my employees despite the fact that the current admin. has actually made it cheaper for me to cut health care all together and generally expand the business. So I’m sorry that I can’t vote for the other side when they view the insane amount of money they already take out of me as “not doing my share” I’m sorry that I can’t vote for the side that wants to spy on literally every word I type (Hopefully not this one though) and I’m truly sorry that I can’t vote for the side that puts forward many social concepts that I wholeheartedly agree with. But the fact remains that my business is at a greater risk if I vote for the left which is something a lot of people will never understand. So no, voting for the right isn’t a vote for the racist parts, just like voting for the left isn’t an endorsement for being spied or drone strikes on civilians. Must be nice though judasdubois to be able to live in such a black and white world (no pun intended)

Well if you think it’s only the “other side” that spies on you you’re wholly full of shit. As far as your business, what makes a business successful? The customers. It’s high time that we stop worrying so damn much about profit margins above everything else. A healthy demand is what keeps business afloat. You honestly think that higher taxes or minimum wages will hurt McDonalds or Wal-Mart? Of course not.

“or it could also be that much of that “income” I report is reinvested in the business which allows me to continue to hire people”

NO ONE REPORTS THAT AS INCOME UNLESS THEY ARE RETARDED. Shit Bird. If you report what you reinvest back into the business as “income” then you’re no where near smart enough to be wealthy. That isn’t “income” defined by the IRC. Hire an accountant. Also, the money you spend on an accountant isn’t “income” either. You write that shit off, dumbass.

Jesus, can we take like at least a one year break from “Demos vs. Repubs”? Football’s almost back and Miley Cyrus is twerkin on screens. Let’s stop with the hate…y’all. Now shut up and go make some rice.

Even if this is a one time incident of him recognizing his mistake and admitting it. I am still glad to see one of these know it all television talking heads actually own up to something and acknowledge the mistake. Maybe John Stewart is rubbing off on him?

Each and every one of them did exactly that, right? It’s amazing that you’d apply something to an entire group of people regardless of whether or not it applied to them all. Seems like a very small minded thing to do. Isn’t that what you’re complaining they do?

If the racist tea party dick sucking shoe fits. Look if the someone from the GOP wants to dispute the idea they should speak up, but they aren’t, because they are terrified of their hoverround riding, medicare/social security using racist ass base.

Another pointless and petty political article. Has Rachel Maddow ever admitted when she’s wrong? You actually think O’Reilly is more of a blowhard than Bill Maher or Chris Matthews? I swear you whiney liberal pansies are turning me conservative. Please submit these articles to the Huffington Post and spare us. The only TV news stories you should cover are bloopers, interviews with drunk celebrities, and dipshit weathermen standing outside during extreme weather, If you want to do an article about somebody on Fox, try Jenna Lee. She is spectacular.

But the thing is, she usually doesn’t play fast and loose with the facts like the Fox News idiots. So she has a lot less reason to admit she was factually wrong because she rarely is factually wrong.

And before Dumbassthenes and the rest say that’s just my liberal bias talking — go find an instance in which Maddow made a factual mistake on the air and didn’t correct it. You assholes insist over and over again that MSNBC is just as bad as Fox, but you never fucking provide any evidence.

Go ahead, we’ll all wait.

You actually think O’Reilly is more of a blowhard than Bill Maher or Chris Matthews?

Maher is a comedian on HBO — if you think he’s analogous to O’Reilly, I think you’re arguing our side of the case. Matthews is a loud mouth ass, who blows whatever direction the prevailing political wind is going. (Remember the on-air erection he had when George Bush played dress up, landed the plane and then gave the Mission Accomplished speech?) But for all his faults, Matthews has never to my knowledge screamed at a guest and then yelled to have their microphone cut off, as O’Reilly has on multiple occasions.

I love you idiots who heard a logical fallacy once and repeatedly trot it out. I believe there is a famous quote from a movie about words not meaning what you think they mean.

But humor me, what strawman is otto applying when the post he’s directly replying to basically said “Both sides are the same.” And Otto responded they were not including a link to a direct thing about how they are not.

So you guys failed to miss my point, which is that there shouldn’t be any of these types of articles on this site at all. I’m probably in the minority here in that I do make a point of watching all of the networks- depending on the story, guest, whatever. I’m not a news junkie, but when I watch I find it interesting to flip around and see what stories are covered and how they are covered on the various networks. I especially make a point to watch FOX because there absolutely is a liberal bias in the news, in entertainment, and on the internet. There just is (this site has become a perfect example.) Aside from that, I’ve seen that every network has their windbags that spew talking points, as well as other hosts who are more reasonable. I’m not going to get in an argument about who is worse than who because who gives a shit? My point is these articles take up precious space on my iPhone that should be reserved for Allison Brie gifs. Sure, I could ignore these stories and scroll past them, but why should I have to?

I don’t remember this site always being this way. Did it change management over the last year? What the hell happened to Corgi Friday? This site introduced me to the magic of Corgis and then it took them away. And didn’t there used to be photoshopped images of surfing dogs? Those were awesome! I come to Warming Glow for comedy, and instead I get more and more whiney liberal douchebaggery. I live in CA. I can get that at any local coffee shop, thanks. (fart noise).

I’ve always said O’Reilly is one of the more reasonable people on that channel. Not exactly high praise, but most of the BS he spouts on that channel is just for ratings. I don’t think he’s genuine with a lot of it.

That may be just a different but equal kind of shitty depending on your perspective though

I have watched the guy for decades, I come from a ethical/political standpoint that can’t help but think almost everything he strongly believes is just wrong and bad . . . and yet I have to say many people are being grossly unfair to him here.
Watching his shows I have seen he has frequently admitted when he has made a factual mistake, usually with quite good grace. I have seen him stop people he has entirely been on-side with, guests who are completely to his way of thinking, and say “No, you are mis-representing our opponent there”.
Some of the people he has shared the side of an argument with, he has also been quite aggressive to when he has detected that they were on his side for ethically wrong reasons.

He often attacks guests he disagrees with and tries to knock down their message, but he almost always allows them to make it and acknowledges that they are at least sincere in their beliefs.

There are worse characters in politics and current affairs by far, than B. O’Reilly